First Date

While Bevel is in training, Carmine finds she has a lot of alone time… and orrick makes his move now that the beloved third wheel is away. I imagine they are traveling around, and bevel is mostly learning how to fight etc, who knows, so Carmine and orrick are usually alone and in town… beautiful summer nights in a beach town…. She kinda doesn’t know what to do with herself cause all she does is work in forge, drink ale, and totally not mother her cousin/nephew/son. (To be clear, they are cousins, he calls her auntie to tease her/reverentially since she’s older, and she’s p much been taking of him since he was born)

Orrick asks Carmine to dinner… and clarifies he means as a date, she kinda is like yeah sure buddy… only he’s being soooo serious. They end up having a wonderful time, and he woos her with wine mom humor etc. Carmine is against dating 🙅‍♀️ she hated her dad so much cause all he cared about wa a the family name so she told him she’d be the last master smith in the family (he was a pos, like ‘you turn coal to diamonds with pressure’ obsessed mean guy) and he keeled over. Any relationships she’s had have been very clinical like ‘ok u get me off, goodbye’ because she don’t play but after her dad passed she stopped it all. Carmine and orrick have their kinda date not dates and things are going ok until she kinda remembers herself. They have a heated discussion and he’s very gracious, accepting her reasoning through many many MANY tears, and promises to be cool and be friends, but says he wants her to be happy, and she should be happy regardless because that’d be better than continuing her dad’s misery, even if that means being happy without orrick, with or without someone else. Carmine thinks long and hard about it in the forge while orrick is throwing himself across his bed like a princess with a broken heart and prob cries for like 10 days, he stays away because he doesn’t want her to feel guilt/manipulated, he just is having a hard time ok????

I think bevel shows up and is the only one with any sense cause he’s a super romantic and is kinda like ‘I think you should be happy, cousin. You deserve to do something for yourself… also idk what happened to orrick but he’s having allergies that make him cry’. Emotionally mature bevel vs emotionally constipated Carmine. She tells him to go because she has work and is gruff and thinks on it, bevel is oblivious to what is happening.

Eventually Carmine decides to make herself happy, and ‘forge a new future’ for herself and goes to orrick, explaining that she had told her dad she’d never pass on the family trade or name to spite him and it literally put him in the grave because he was so pissed… but her dating an elf would piss him off even more and orrick makes her happy.

They agree to begin seeing each other, and tbh they’re both older and mature, Carmine is like… mid 30’s to late 30’s/early 40’s… prob closer to 40’s, and Orrick is similar (or maybe he’s younger and wants a cougar idk he’s an elf so regardless he’d be like 100 but physically her age), I could see them getting married very quickly. Like together for a few months or a year (they’ve known each other for years at this point) so they tie the knot during their journeys. Hehe

Obvi bevel is their adult son so I doubt they have any kids… but who knows. Since elves only ‘sleep’ 4 hrs a night, I imagine he actually sleeps then just lays in bed and brushes carmines beard for like 4 hours while she sleeps idk, or he goes and does all the chores and makes himself pretty for his wife with his 65 step skincare routine. Obvi, Carmine sleeps in boxers and tank top (or shirtless) and orrick sleeps in a satin nightgown (it’s a robe he says)